But NASCAR is still considering penalties against Logano’s Penske Racing team and/or Front Row Motorsports for possible violations at Richmond. Radio transmissions from the race indicate that Front Row’s David Gilliland agreed to give up a spot on the track to Logano to help him make the Chase.

A NASCAR spokesman said Friday that no decision had been made but NASCAR officials remained huddled in meetings, leaving teams expecting a decision today. Qualifying for the first Chase race is set for 5:40 p.m. ET.

Both Penske and Front Row had all of their team personnel available for practice, which started at 1 p.m. ET.

In-car audio from Gilliland’s radio channel indicates that Gilliland agreed to give up a spot to Logano during the waning laps of the race at Richmond.

Earlier this week, NASCAR removed Martin Truex Jr. from the Chase after it concluded that Michael Waltrip Racing manipulated the outcome of the race. MWR’s Clint Bowyer appeared to spin out intentionally with seven laps remaining and then Brian Vickers was told to come down pit road in the last few laps to help Logano, which in turn helped Truex, who earned the final wild-card spot when Logano remained 10th in the standings.

Ryan Newman was awarded the final Chase spot when Truex was penalized, but Gordon’s situation was not addressed. After the penalties were announced, Gordon team owner Rick Hendrick said his driver “got robbed.”

Gordon said Thursday night that he has low expectations that NASCAR would find a way for him to get into the Chase.

“I don’t know if I can say (the radio transmissions are) conclusive, but that (compensation to give up the spot) certainly seemed to be the deal — the audio speaks for itself,” Gordon said. “It’s a pretty detailed conversation. … That conversation was very obvious what it was about and what they were trying to accomplish, and they accomplished it.

“That’s the biggest thing ahead of NASCAR right now — how do you stop that, how do you prevent that from happening?”

Gordon said the only instructions to drivers have been that NASCAR would prefer such incidents not happen.

“Nobody has ever laid down a penalty for it, and that’s what’s changing things now,” Gordon said. “After the penalty that was served to MWR primarily as it related to (Vickers) and (spotter) Ty Norris’ conversation, I don’t see how you can’t act and treat this situation the same way, other than they’re not teammates.”

Logano said Thursday that he knew nothing of any deal with Gilliland.

‘Obviously there is no transcript on our radio of anything said about it,” Logano said Thursday. “Obviously I would have known about it if that was the case. That is stuff that happens week in and week out with spotters. They are up there communicating back and forth trying to work deals out.”